Ah My Goddess Fan Fiction ❯ Trial By Tenderness ❯ Part 9 - Shadows ( Chapter 9 )

Part 9: Shadows

 

Skuld woke up to find sunshine and Belldandy glowing down upon her face. She looked up sheepishly at her sister's eyes and smiled diminutively. Feeling as relaxed as a marble repousse, Skuld yawned lazily, allowing herself to savor every nuance of Bell's protective vigilance. She soaked in the security of being in her bedroom with her middle sister awake and her oldest sister safely asleep. A moment later, she leisurely sat up and combed her fingers through her ample streams of black hair, pulling it back and setting the soft long locks in a bright red and pink hair clasp.

"Skuld, you're back among the living!" Belldandy announced, smiling good-humoredly. With sincere relief, she noticed that some of the distress had left her sister's beautiful nut-brown eyes. Skuld's safety had been foremost on her mind yesterday and today. Belldandy felt even happier as she basked in the innocent glow of Skuld's close-lipped smile.

"My precious baby sister is better!" she reflected with deeply felt gratitude. She silently observed the effusive charm of her younger sister's features; the eiderdown silken sheen of Skuld's jet-black hair, the plectrum-shaped blue rings on her forehead and cheeks, the short rounded stub of her nose and the full oval curve of her jaw. The hard-edged visage of yesterday's Skuld had been replaced with the soft, slightly child-like countenance of this morning's Skuld.

"You are going to grow up to be such a beautiful Goddess, Skuld!" Belldandy silently complemented her sister.

"Skuld, how do you feel this morning?" she asked Skuld gently.

"I feel so much better now that I'm home. Wow! Almost all my energy seems to have come back!" she said vibrantly. Skuld spent the next few minutes animatedly describing the fantastic experiences of yesterday.

"It was so horrible horrible horrible, Elder Sister! I was working on the Shinseisensor and Cevn came in and started helping. It seemed crazy, but he was actually offering up some good ideas. When we got done, he used my creation...to imprison me," she said as she rallied her memories. Her stomach knotted as she agonized over the concept of one of her own mechas being turned against her.

"I thought all along that Cevn had kidnapped me! That lair was...indescribably awful!" Skuld shuddered with the memories of that evil place.

Belldandy could barely comprehend the trauma that Skuld must have undergone in that place. She herself had only spent a short time in the horrible Demonic retreat...while Skuld had experienced an entire day there as an unwilling captive. She nodded to Skuld, who continued, talking about how angry she was. Belldandy empathized with Skuld's sheer frustration of being caged up by Mara. Then Skuld came to the part about the melding of her thoughts and Cevn's.

"I could feel him, Belldandy! He was in my mind and I was in his! Somehow I sorta knew that's what was happening. I guess I noticed something was goofy when I felt like Megumi was my little sister and that I wasn't jealous about Keiichi. For a minute, I wondered if...I was feeling the right things," Skuld explained. Belldandy perked up at this admission by Skuld.

"What did you just say, Skuld?!" she exclaimed aloud, her mouth ajar with surprise. She was stunned. Was Skuld actually admitting that she was wrong? Could Skuld be actually stating that she had (for a moment) relinquished her long-held jealousy towards Keiichi? Belldandy suddenly felt butterflies in her breast as a rush of questions vied in her mind. She wanted to learn exactly what her younger sister had meant! With a supreme mental effort, Belldandy fought her curiosity down and let Skuld continue uninterrupted.

"Elder Sister, I've been mistaken...about a lot of things. About you and Keiichi. About Cevn. Even about Megumi and Big Sister!" Skuld confessed, consumed by deep pangs of guilt. Belldandy saw the churning volcanic rush of self-criticism threatening to erupt...

"Skuld, you've never been wrong about these things! You shouldn't ever say that about yourself...it's simply how you felt about things. All feelings, if they arise out of love, are good feelings. We just have to grow into them, so we can express them more sincerely," Belldandy gently explained, lightly chiding her sister.

"R..really? You really think so, Elder Sister?" Skuld wanted so much to hang onto her sister's words as truisms.

"Yes, dear Skuld. And I've always known that your feelings towards Keiichi were arising out of your goodness and love. I know you love me...and I know it's been hard on you to sort out your feelings. They simply were in conflict with your deep love for me."

"Y..you're right! It's like...my whole way of looking at things needs to change. Is changing. For a moment, I saw you and Keiichi different light. Maybe...like Cevn must sense how you and Keiichi feel about each other. And I realized, much as I hate to admit it, how truly much you must love him!" she stated. Her demeanor shifted into a fixed look of determination.

"That doesn't mean that I'm going to let him take advantage of you. If he ever does, he's in super big trouble!" she said defiantly.

"Super big trouble, Skuld?" Belldandy asked, not wanting her sister to slip back into animosity against her Keiichi.

"But I really don't feel it in my heart...that I can ever expect him to hurt you, either. If he treats you really nice, then I'll... Then I'll love him too!"

Belldandy quietly listened to Skuld's flow-of-consciousness wordspill. She caught herself in a castaway daydream...an imaginary life with Keiichi minus Skuld's constant suspicion and jealousy. It was as if a new ordo equilibrio in their love was about to unfold. Unexpectedly, it seemed that Skuld had grown up a whole lot in the past few days.

"Could this stubbornness of hers be a thing of the past, now?" Belldandy wondered. She remembered the dozens of times Skuld had antagonized Keiichi because of her zeal to protect her middle sister. Oddly enough, Belldandy felt like she did the time Urd hopped on Sleipnir's back unexpectedly and she ended up getting kicked in the head by all four of his hind hooves!

 

...Dizzy...Dazed...Dreamy...

 

"Please let it be so!" she sighed longingly while Skuld resumed her narrative.

"While our thoughts were being admixed, I reached out with my mind and contacted him. Pretty smart of me, huh? But then I found out that he had resisted Mara just long enough to try and set me free. And then she..." She paused, her lip quivering with intense emotion.

"Mara made him cut out...his own eyes!" Skuld spat out with painful disgust.

Belldandy couldn't believe what she had just heard! Mara had possessed Cevn, then made him do this unspeakable thing to himself for trying and failing to free Skuld. And Skuld had witnessed it! She felt renewed severity towards her Demonic counterpart.

In the past three and a half years that she had been on the Earthrealm, Mara had been power-hungry, covert, innocently antagonistic and malicious in a pranksterish sort of way. But ever since Cevn had arrived, she had become savagely vicious. Belldandy felt sickened at the thought that her innocent younger sister had witnessed such an atrocity, and that her new mortal friend had been crippled by it.

"He did it for me! He..snff..did it to try and free me. No one has ever done something like that for me. H..he must be good. No way is he a Demon! He must be one of the best mortal men there can be!" Skuld sniffled. "Cevn made me understand..snff..why you love Keiichi so much. And why Keiichi is also one of the most wonderful men in existence.

"And that I should love Keiichi instead of being jealous of him!" Skuld concluded. She looked up at her older sister, her dun-brown eyes searching hers for forgiveness. Then she bowed low to the ground, touching her head to the floor in a gesture of formality.

"P..Please forgive me, Elder Sister! Pretty please?"

Belldandy's heart knitted speechless at this. Then she heard a second source of sobbing. Urd had awakened and was listening tearfully to Skuld's confession. Belldandy wiped the tears off of Skuld's face with her bed robe sleeve while Urd hugged her tightly, wrapping her arms protectively around her youngest sister. Belldandy felt herself lightly weeping as well.

"Skuld," she said softly in her little sister's ear, "how could I not forgive you. I've already been forgiving you...during all these years you've been with Keiichi and I. I've already forgiven you, and I..snff..just wanted to be able to tell you someday. Now I can finally tell you...and that makes my heart soar with happiness!"

Urd was almost floating off the floor with emotion...her two younger sisters were finally reconciling themselves, rather than warring over Keiichi's love for Belldandy!

"Cevn-san doesn't feel any hatred or bitterness against any of us. He has some kind of pain from his past, which makes him feel like he's broken. Kinda like Sigel was until we fixed her. And I felt a part of him feels totally alone. Because he has no one to love. He loves everyone, but he doesn't have a special one, like you have Keiichi to love most," Skuld randomly digressed.

Belldandy was swept up in all of what she just had heard.

Once more, Cevn had been the target of unwanted antagonism from Mara--and once again, events had emerged much better in the end.

She envisioned her future with Keiichi...her dear Keiichi!

"Wait till you hear about this, my love!" she happily thought, her heart somersaulting with anticipation. She looked over at Urd, and saw a bittersweet expression on her tanned face.

It was if a large burden had suddenly been released from her. Finally, she wouldn't have to choose between Skuld and Keiichi! This had been the dream she had hoped for since she first experienced Skuld's hostile reaction to her beloved Keiichi.

Belldandy had frequently wished that she were mortal, so that she could be granted one wish. Hundreds of times, she, who had been a wish-grantor to hundreds of mortals over the millennia, had fantasized the fulfillment of her own special wish: to be in blissful love with someone.

Then she discovered who that special someone was. But her little sister scorned that someone...with a tongue of fire. So she wished for a love molded on swanwings of peace...

Now, several years later, events seemed poised to allow that wish to become a reality. Somehow, Cevn had made one of her unspoken wishes come true!

But her cheerful reverie was broken by the sober realization of the price Cevn had paid. He had lost his vision. Forever. There was nothing that she or anyone else could do to undo the damage already done. There were strict Rules concerning GRO Goddesses healing Earthrealm mortals. Minor healings...yes, she could do these. But major healings...were absolutely prohibited. She couldn't use her magic enchantments to replace his vision.

The sheer tragedy of this struck her, almost burying her with rapt melancholy. Belldandy considered all the myriad of beings she had encountered, and realized that Cevn-san was perhaps one of the noblest persons she had ever met. Next to Keiichi and the Almighty, his selfless actions...

"Belldandy, there still is a chance! I was able to get his eyes from Mara!" Urd announced. She had noticed Belldandy's sudden shift in mood from epiphanous to somber and guessed what might be causing it.

"Huh? Huh? How did you do that, Urd?" Skuld said, her face blending hope and optimism.

"I threatened to blow Mara back to the Central Demon Grief Office! You should have seen the look on her...!" Urd shouted, wanting to embellish the event.

"Waitaminute!!! I can build a machine that can put them back in! A micro-molecular surgical transporter, the Surgeomatrix Mk I!" Skuld interrupted, a flurry of schematics synergizing in her mind.

"Why not Mk. II, Skuld?" Urd asked flatly, her eyes narrowed.

"There's no time for a Mk. II, you squirrel-brain! I'm going to make sure this one works the first time!"

"Like all the other 'first times'? Hmmm...lemme see: Banpei, Keiichi's MRX, two TV sets, Sentaro's stunt bicycle..." Urd stacked up the taunts with captious precision.

Skuld stuck her tongue out at her oldest sister...then she felt an elbow nudging.

"Urd! You know how much Skuld wants to help. But instead of encouraging her, you go and tease her!" Belldandy said, slightly miffed off.

"I just wanted everyone to know that things are back to normal here. And that I'm still the boss!"

"Yeah, right!" Skuld protested sourly as Urd swiftly reached out and pinched her younger sister on the nose.

"Owww!" Belldandy yelped daintily. Once more, she had fallen victim to one of Urd's old antics. She waxed with nostalgia as she remembered how Urd always pinched her when they were little.

"Get 'er!" she yelled as soon as she wrestled Urd's arm away. She and Skuld quickly scooped up their pillows and bombarded their older sister with fluffblows. It was just like the old times up in Yggdrasil for the three.

"Hey...guys...er...sisters...umph, younger sisters!!! I think I can..ooff...mix a potion that will..umph..allow the damage to heal, if you stop hitting me with those things!" Urd managed to say, trying to fend off pillows with her arms while she grabbed her own pillow.

"Aiyyyyyhh!"

Their boisterous playtime was cut short by a loud scream.

"What now?" each Goddess thought to herself. It was obviously a female scream...which meant that it was Megumi. Could it be a renewed assault by Mara?

"There's never a moment of peace and quiet in this household!" Urd muttered flatly. The three sisters dropped their pillows, dashed out into the hallway, and saw a startled Megumi looking in on Cevn's room, screaming at the top of her lungs with grief.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Megumi had been awakened by muffled sounds from the Goddess's bedroom. Quickly alert, she remembered that Urd and Belldandy had gone to rescue Skuld and Cevn. She decided to check and see if Cevn was safe, since Belldandy had returned with Skuld already.

"If Urd is back, that must mean Cevn-san is back safe and sound too," she concluded as she slipped on her houserobe. Against her better judgment, she decided to take a peek. Sliding the door open, she gasped when she saw that his eyes were covered with a strip of cloth. The she noticed one of his arms resting on his blanket; it had a deep stab wound and slashes.

The red stains on the sunken cloth over his eye sockets registered a vicious hit on her caring nature.

He had lost his eyes!

"Please, don't let him be dead!" Megumi thought to herself...and then she instinctively screamed.

"What...happened...to...his...eyes!" she sobbed as she staggered backwards and bumped against the opposite wall in shock.

Skuld heard the scream and instantly realized that Megumi must have woken up while they were playing around. Then she evidently decided to see if Cevn had been brought back yet. She knew that Urd had silently taken him to his room last night upon their return after stilling his mind to an almost stasis-like calm.

"Why is she that concerned about him?" Urd initially wondered with a hint of jealousy. Then she saw the shocked look on Megumi's face and felt the toiling grief that gripped Keiichi's sister. Urd realized with a fireburst of compassion that no one had prepared Megumi for this!

Megumi was wailing with grief. Keiichi quietly came up to her and walked her out into the living room. Keiichi's stomach caught in his throat with the brief glimpse of what had been done to his new friend. Belldandy knelt down next to Megumi to try and comfort her.

Megumi was choking on her tears as Keiichi talked softly to calm her. Belldandy hugged her close...and Megumi gradually regained her composure enough to ask what happened. Belldandy related to her everything that Skuld had told her about the pair's captivity. She assured Megumi that her sisters would do everything possible to try and restore his eyesight.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Urd and Skuld stepped into Cevn's bedroom. Urd recited a spell and the soft blue stasis field enveloping him vanished. Something seemed to be definitely wrong, Urd immediately noted. Instead of being in the same condition that he was when she left him last night, somehow he had gotten much worse. Worried, she touched him on the forehead, scanning his vitals.

"Oh my Lord, no!" Urd said with dread.

"Skuld, we better get to work on him right now! I don't think he's going to last much longer if we don't!" She put her head to his chest...her divine senses informed her that he was at death's door.

"Damn it! I didn't even suspect that he was this far gone!" she berated herself.

"Didn't you put him in a stasis spell?" Skuld said as she sprinted to her "Skuld Labs" room. She returned with a big kit of parts, while Urd gave Cevn several ampoules in an attempt to forestall a tragic end.

"Man, that girl can run fast when she wants to," Urd observed to herself.

"Why is he so sick, Big Sister? You were supposed to..."

"I did I did I did, Skuld! I almost expended all of my energy getting him here with me. Then I made sure he was okay once we arrived! But it was hard...I could only draw on partial Earth Spirit level powers."

"What's wrong with him?!" Skuld asked despairingly, fighting to keep calm as she realized that she might lose her new friend.

"When we got back, I made totally sure that he was in stasis before I crashed!" Urd said defensively.

"I don't know what happened!"

"I...just don't want anything to happen to him, Urd! Don't let him die!" Skuld lashed out urgently. Urd was surprised at the shift in Skuld's perspective towards Cevn.

"Something happened between Cevn-san and I..." Urd raised an eyebrow as her curiosity raced for a few seconds with this bit of news.

"I'll tell you later! We've got to figure out what's wrong with him right now Big Sister!"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Belldandy suddenly inhaled with a gasp as she saw the black-hooded spectral figure begin to descend from the skies, scythe in hands. Keiichi noticed her sudden expression of fear and asked what was upsetting her.

"Urd and Skuld...better hurry!" was all she could say as the dark shadow moved closer to their temple compound.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Urd was wracking her brains desperately trying to understand how this could be happening. He was okay last night! She mentally reviewed every bit of information that she recalled from yesterday, looking for some kind of hint or clue to help her understand Cevn's grave condition. She looked over at Skuld, watching with sincere admiration as the younger Goddess's hands seemed to blur while she was assembling some kind of a machine.

"What a team we are, we can't even save one mortal's life," she reflected remorsefully. Urd knew that the Reaper would be coming soon.

Cevn's rattling breath suddenly stopped. Urd grasped his wrist and felt no pulse. Skuld was almost paralyzed with panic.

"Skuld, I need an electrical shock right now!"

"What do you need an electric shock for right now, Urd? He's the one that's..." a distracted Skuld replied, clearly overwhelmed. Urd was used to playing nurse, but Skuld was inexperienced in medical matters.

"Not for me, for him! He's flatlined!" Skuld's eyes went wide at this. She quickly grasped two tube-like modules and ripped apart a set of broken headphones. Urd watched in amazement as, within ten seconds, Skuld had patched together a cardiac defibrillator ready for Urd to use. Grabbing the two pads, she placed them on Cevn's chest while Skuld applied the charge. He heaved and his heart started beating sporadically, then stopped. Urd looked up, and saw the dark-hooded figure hovering just outside the window.

"You can't have him! Nonononono!" Skuld yelled with shrill defiance through her tears. "We're not going to let you take Cevn-san away!"

They kept jolting him, only to hear his heartbeat fade. Urd imagined the Reaper banging on the window, trying to break in to the room and take Cevn's Soul. She upped the amps...and the ensuing jolt rolled Cevn on his side. Urd noticed a series of wounds on his neck. 

"Of course! How could I miss it?" she grilled herself with guilt for overlooking the obvious.

"Skuld, look!" Urd shouted as she pointed to the bite marks. Mara had taken possession of Cevn by vampirism. Before they had rescued him, she had activated her fangbite poison.

"Mara, you're the lowest! But you aren't going to get away with it this time, you rotten Demon!" Urd mused, relieved at her chance discovery. In a matter of seconds, she materialized a hemoglobin poison detection set and slipped a drop of blood from the wound on his neck onto a slide, then dipped it into a beaker. Skuld anticipated this by quickly assembling a makeshift titration centrifuge to spin the sample in. Urd patted her youngest sister on the head, wordlessly thanking her.

Seconds later they pulled the beaker out. The pink blood-reagent mix had transmorphed into a sickening thick pale yellow. Urd turned to the dark hooded figure in the window and flipped it off.

"Too bad! Not today, you don't!" she said triumphantly. Skuld followed suit and stuck her tongue out while pulling a face.

"Biiii-Da!"

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Belldandy could sense that the Reaper was right outside the house. All she could do was hold Keiichi's hand tightly and wordlessly form a wish.

"My Lord, please don't let the Reaper take him away from us," she requested the Almighty. But the dark shadow descended into the house, and Belldandy shivered with dread. She saw that Keiichi and Megumi were both alarmed by the frozen eclipse of the morning light that accompanied Death.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

In Cevn's room, Urd encanted a spell:

In the face of doom/with sanguine admixed/to drain vitality away/

Thy new form to assume/dread toxins fixed/corruption kept at bay/

Let life now resume/and chemicals untwist/restore vigor...vivace!

As she finished her recital, a slender tubular beaker formed in mid-air. She quickly dumped it into Cevn's mouth. He sputtered and choked as the arcane elixir went down. After a couple anxious minutes, his throttly breathing began to slow down to steady tides.

The dark figure in the window shook its skeletal finger at Urd and Skuld with an admonishing gesture, then shrugged its shoulders and faded into nothingness. Urd and Skuld sat back with relief, as they heard Cevn's breathing growing stronger.

Suddenly Cevn gasped, sucking in a huge lungful of air. Skuld held her hand to his forehead...he was burning up! She went next door to the bathroom and soaked a washcloth in cool water. When she returned to the room, she noticed Urd stroking Cevn's face in an odd sort of way.

"Here, this will cool him down!" Skuld said excitedly as Urd quickly jerked her hand away. Urd looked momentarily disappointed, adding to the younger Goddess's confusion.

"What'd I do to get you in a huff? Didn't I help you good enough?" she said to Urd, applying the cool cloth to his head. "Nothing. I was just imagining for a moment..." Urd answered, looking at her resignedly

"Yeah?" Skuld prompted, lofted by the recent excitement.

"It's useless, impossible!" Urd shouted. Skuld looked at her with a "what are you talking about?" expression.

"Anyway, tell me what happened between you and Cevn?" Urd said, looking at her sister like a prosecutor expecting an admission of guilt. Skuld once more explained the merging of her consciousness with Cevn's. Urd regretted sleeping through that part of Skuld's story. She was both disappointed and moved by the adventurous tale. She had whimsically expected some kind of juicy admission, like Skuld having a school-girl puppycrush on Cevn...but instead Urd was left with more questions than answers.

"How could Skuld and he share even a microsecond of a mind-merge?" she wondered. Urd knew that any direct contact between a divine being and a mortal would fry said mortal's mind; it was like dropping a grasshopper in the midst of a antimatter plasmic storm. Something really strange was going on here...

She decided to drop the question for now and get Skuld.

"I was just worried that you would...take advantage of him some way," Urd teased. Skuld glared at her with a very serious face.

"No way! I have a pure mind, unlike some other Goddess I know who thinks everything has to be perverted all the time!" Skuld replied razorsharp.

"You just watch it Skuld, or I'll give Cevn a love potion and send him after you!"

"You... You better not, or else Tomohisa will get mad!" Skuld said, and then quickly covered her mouth.

Too late.

She blushed deep red when she realized that Urd had tricked her into mentioned her young 'boyfriend's' name again!

This was the juicy prize Urd was waiting for, and she smiled mischievously at her sister's discomfiture.

"Urd, you do this just to make me say his name and get embarrassed! But I'm not afraid to admit I l..l..l..like him!" Skuld said defensively. Urd patted her sister on the head.

"You can have your childish little infatuation with Tomohisa. I won't try to take him away from you, Little Sister Training Bra!" she said condescendingly. The blush on Skuld's cheeks flashed into a crimson red forehead.

"Ooooo...there's no way would Tomohisa leave me for an old witch like you!" she snapped back.

"He's not even with you, Skuld! Now who's daydreaming, neh?" Skuld's rapid expression of frustration and confusion was more than enough to satisfy Urd. She realized that she had pushed the sensitive Skuld enough for her own edification; so she suggested a truce. At least her pent up worries of a short while ago were gone.

"We better leave Cevn-san so he can rest," she noted, diplomatically suggesting that Skuld be the one to check on him every so often...

Skuld assented to this with a grin, and all arguments were forgiven.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Belldandy was relieved when the dark loomshadow leave the temple environs. When Urd and Skuld emerged from Cevn's room she served everyone a soothing glass of tea. Her two sisters looked like they needed it...bad.

"We almost lost him! Mara poisoned him when she bit his neck," Urd explained.

Megumi heard this and paled. She self-consciously rubbed the side of her neck, remembering that time several years ago when Mara had bitten her. She shuddered at the recollection, and was grateful that Mara didn't try to poison her. Then she realized that her newly 'adopted' older brother had nearly died, and the shocking awareness of the fragility of the threadthin net of life settled in. She felt very thankful to Urd and Skuld for their attentions to Cevn, and said a silent "thank you" to Kami-sama.

"What is wrong with her? Mara hasn't been this bad since she sprung the Ultimate Destruction Program! She's never tried to kill anyone before...she's just been a pain in the ass, doing things like turning people into lizards, creating doppelgangers and turning schools into German castles. Even when she sent Kodama, it wasn't an attempt to kill anyone; she just wanted to try and get Bell-chan and I to break up!" Keiichi questioned aloud.

He remembered the horrid disgrace when he was changed into a lizard by Mara. That time, Urd had come along and tried to finish restoring him; but instead she sent him back down the evolutionary ladder to become a frog. At least he didn't stay in amphibious form for long. He gagged on his tea when he thought of what would have happened if he had become hungry and had to chase down flies for dinner.

"Flies!" Keiichi said out loud.

"What?" Skuld asked.

"Flies, Skuld. Remember when Mara wanted to release the Ultimate Destruction Program, and she threatened to turn me into a fly?"

"So?" said Urd.

"Mara must be after something really bad, to be this reckless," he stated. They all knew this...but Keiichi's emphasis drew this awareness to new heights.

Lightning flashing in her mind, Skuld remembered Mara's plan. This scheme of Mara's hadn't really redeemed itself to be an important fact earlier...because it had been voiced by Cevn while he was possessed by Mara. But now, those words splooshed Skuld like a six-legged bug pouncing on her head.

"I remember! I remember, I remember! While Mara was possessing Cevn, she made him say something about some Ultimate Demon called Isilblius! Something about how she was going to summon him, based on some formula written in that book Cevn has. Then she bragged that Isilblius would obey her commands, and together they would take over everything."

"Oh no!" Belldandy and Urd said in tandem. Consternation worked both of their faces as they considered the dire possibilities ahead if this was true.

"What is this Isilblius that you guys are so worried about?" Keiichi asked, noting the obvious clouds of fear shadowing Bell-chan's face. Belldandy collected her thoughts and began to narrate a fable.

"Long ago, before any of us manifested, there was a powerful being called Isilblius, who was somehow cocreated with the Almighty. After the second creation...what you mortals call the 'Big Bang', only three beings remained. Kami-sama, the Other...and Isilblius.

"One went...somewhere else...while the Almighty and Isilblius co-designed Yggdrasil, living in harmony for eons. Eventually, Isilblius desired to possess all of the power, because he was too selfish to share with Kami-sama. They warred for a very long time, and eventually Isilblius created the Ultimate Destruction Program."

"What!" Keiichi, Megumi and Skuld all said with shock. Skuld squatted on her haunches and stared blankly in the air with a fallow expression. Suddenly she leapt to her feet.

"So this explains the origin of the UDP! I knew the Lord would never be so evil as to create such a monstrous thing! I always wondered, though... Once we defeated it, I kept asking myself, 'where did the UDP come from?'" Skuld cried out, her longstanding queries resolved.

"Yes, Skuld, it did have to come from somewhere. Only a being as foul as Isilblius could have created the UDP," Belldandy stated. "He threatened to destroy the Multiverse if our Lord didn't bow down to him. But the Almighty and the so-called 'Other One' managed to confuse him, and trapped both Isilblius and the Ultimate Destruction Program."

"How did they do that?" Keiichi asked. "What is this 'other one' you keep mentioning?" He noticed Belldandy and Urd casting a telling glance at each other...they were hiding something!

"They both told Isilblius that the UDF would destroy everything...including all that Isilblius coveted, plus Isilblius himself," Belldandy answered with a giggle.

"What a maroon...he was conned by the Almighty!" Urd said, laughing heartily. As the mood in the room momentarily lightened, she looked at her sister, relieved that neither one of them had to answer any more questions about the "Other One".

"The Almighty discourages the retelling of this particular legend because it could be seen as casting Him...in a bad light. He doesn't like anyone to think that He is capable of subterfuge. That's why you haven't been told about it, Skuld. You have to be an adult Goddess before you get inculcated with the full details of this legend."

"He's always so concerned about His image, even though He's such a big meany," Urd interjected.

"Shhhh, what if He heard that?" Skuld said fearfully.

"So what if He did, Skuld? We pulled His divine behind out of the fire when we put an end to the Ultimate Destruction Program. He should be grateful! But instead, He suspended my license again," Urd argued back.

"Ahem. Anyway," Belldandy broke in before Urd began the usual anti-Lord tirade, "In theory, Isilblius is much more powerful than the Almighty. It took all three of them to cocreate reality, but Isilblius by himself created something that could destroy reality."

"Yes, and he's far more dangerous than the Lord. I mean, the Lord isn't dangerous unless provoked, but Isilblius is just plain crazy!" Urd opined.

"But he also lacks wit. He's not as bright as the Lord, he just goes off and acts without thinking," Belldandy added.

"Sounds like someone I know," muttered Keiichi in a sotto voce, glancing at Urd.

"Very funny, Keiichi," Urd replied in a monotone while the others laughed. Belldandy giggled and squeezed Urd's shoulder.

"We still love you despite yourself, Big Sister. Even if it is true what Keiichi-san said," Belldandy remarked, then burst into another fit of the giggles.

"That's what you get for pinching my nose, Big Sister!" she justified. Urd smiled at all of this, than began to giggle herself. She was relieved that everybody seemed to be able to laugh a little after the intense events of the past couple of days.

"Okay, you guys win!" she acquiesced.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

I felt a slow returning to consciousness. My thoughts were disordered at first as the chaos organized itself around a cloud-obscured memory. The last moment I could mentally reconstruct was someone pulling me out of Mara's 'house of horrors'.

I was startled by the total lack of light: everything was pitch black. The darkness wasn't a shadow...it was simply an absence.

"My God, I'm blind!" I said hoarsely.

Then I remembered. I revisited the cruel blinding that Mara had caused, using my own unwilling body. I was blind. I just wasn't accustomed to waking up and seeing nothing. My spirits sank and I felt something deep inside of me burst. The reservoir of hope I possessed was suddenly depleted by a shattered dam of fear.

My new state of blindness prompted a deluge of self-pity. It wasn't enough that I was abused physically and sexually as a child. It wasn't enough that I had lived on the streets and endured the unmanageable lifestyle of a hope-to-die dope fiend. It wasn't enough that I was plagued with the instabilities and limitations of a clinically severe mental illness. Now, I had been deprived of the sense that I most relied upon.

Was life ever enough?

I morosely brooded over the deprivation. I would never see the wonders of nature again! I would never be able to look in a mirror and see my own expression again!

Then it dawned on me that, with the loss of my eyes, the windows to my soul had been slammed shut! The most important vehicle of expression besides speech had been removed from my being. I would never be able communicate my appreciation to a friend with an eyeful of kindness. I would never be able to gaze adoringly at the girlfriend I had dreamt about in my desires...

While I passionately tallied the extent of my irretrievable losses, I reached up with my right hand and touched my face. I felt stubble on my chin, right above my heavily bandaged neck.

I must have been out of it for days! Was I still in Japan? Where could I be? Without being able to see anything, I felt a wave of paranoia wash over me. What if I was still in Mara's lair? Reaching further up, I gingerly touched the place where the cloth covered my eyes. The dull throbbing sharpened into excruciating pain. My fingertips depressed the area where my eyes should be; confirming that my eye sockets were empty. Further up, I felt a cool cloth on my forehead.

I couldn't move my left arm at all. With great effort, I reached over with my right arm, and felt bandages all up and down my left arm. I remembered Mara using me to stab myself in the left forearm. My whole body felt enfeebled and drained. On top of being weak, I felt a sepsis-like sensation of nausea and vertigo.

I wanted to get up, but was afraid to. My body presented the propriation of being one big swollen bruise. So I laid still and let my mind race of its own accord.

"What was the use of trying anymore, my life is ruined!" The attitude repeated over and over in my thoughts like a mantra.

I wanted to scream, but I was certain no one would hear. My cognition was ponthered, skewed. I was feeling my sanity flee like grains of sand spilling between splayed fingers. I gripped my right hand tight in order to keep from screaming, as my left hand wouldn't close. The darkness lingered.

At first the dark was annoying...then frightening...then terrifying...then something to be ignored...then a reminder of the past...then bleakly discouraging. I don't know how many times the cycle repeated in my heart until the door slid open.

"Who is it!?" I shouted at the sound. My voice had a knife-edge of fear in it. Deprived of my visual reflex, I was suddenly ultra-suspicious. It was almost a scream.

"Oh, Cevn-san! You're awake!" I heard Skuld's excited voice.

"I was so worried about you. We all were!" she said with obvious relief.

"Skuld...is that really you?"

"Yeah it's me! You big idiot! Who else could it be?" she said with a hint of irritation.

"How do I know that you're not Mara, posing as Skuld?" I asked. My recent captivity had planted a strong germ of paranoia in my consciousness. I felt a reassuring hand rest on my shoulder. I reached over and tried to touch it, but couldn't. Then I felt a small pair of hands lift my hand up and hold it. I knew they were Skuld's, because they were so delicately tiny and milk soft.

"How do you feel? I've been coming every hour or so to check on you. The others have been checking on you too!" she asked.

"I feel blind," I answered bluntly, despondently.

"I'm sorry, Skuld. I can't share in your enthusiasm. I can't see a thing. Do you know what that's like? I...feel so horrible!"

I heard shuffling sounds, then after a moment I felt Skuld settle my hand between hers on her lap. She must have been kneeling right next to me. Holding my hand tightly, she uttered a solemn promise.

"After what you did for me, Cevn-san, I'm not going to rest until your vision is returned to normal. Big Sister Urd and I have been working on a way to restore your sight."

*Hope!*

I felt a hobbling spark of hope in reaction to her words. Skuld definitely sounded confident! Could it be possible that the Goddesses could figure out a way around my sorry condition? I was stunned! I felt Skuld patting my hand gently.

"I promise you that we'll undo that horrible thing that Mara did to you!" Skuld repeated. I felt the wet cloth being lifted off of my head, and a new cool cloth replaced it.

"There, that should feel better. I've been changing these constantly. You've been running as hot as Keiichi's MRX in July!" Skuld alluded. I tried to smile thankfully to her, and she patted me on the head.

"Hey, don't treat me like a kid, okay?" I mimicked her. I could hear Skuld muffle a giggle.

"Do you know how old I am, Cevn-san? I was alive for a thousand centuries before you guys built your first pyramids here on the Earthrealm. Compared to me, you're just a little boy!" she said, a twinkle in her voice.

"Well, you might want to think twice about restoring my vision, because if you do, I am going to get you back for calling me a 'boy'!"

"You just try it! Remember who you're talking to...I'm the Goddess and you're the mortal!" I realized that I was actually joking with the youngest Goddess. With kindness, Skuld had ushered me into her carefree and happy worldmoment.

I remembered the tiny shard of Skuld's thoughts that I shared during our captivity. Her essence was so predominated by vivacious cheer. Now, here it was again. Just the presence of Skuld in the room was enough to significantly lift my spirits. It was infectious.

"You sound just like your big sister Urd. That what she always says, about me being a mortal and she being a Goddess. Do you have this effect on all the boys?"

"Why would I want to have an effect on boys?" Skuld asked testily.

"Well, I was so bummed out before you came, and now you helped me forget...my visual condition. Thanks, Skuld!" I was sincere in thanking her, and tried to project that in my voice. She changed the topic.

"We should be ready to try it in a few days, if you can hang on until then," she reassured me.

"What day is today, Skuld?"

"Thursday."

"WHAT!" I felt a sense of panic. I had missed the first week of the new school year at N.I.T! It struck me as strange...how easy it was to return my focus to mundane matters such as my new teaching job when I had just been to Hades and back courtesy of Mara.

"Megumi and Keiichi took care of it for you. They called the local newspaper and reported that you were in an accident. They asked one of their teachers to talk to Dr. Kintaro and inform him that you had to go to a specialist in Tokyo for eye surgery. You still have your job, honey," Urd explained.

"When did you come, Urd? And how long have you've been listening? And who gave you permission to call me 'honey'?" I asked with a hint of irritation. The last thing I desired was Urd to be spying.

"Long enough ago to hear you compare me to Skuld! Obviously the deranged thinking of someone who's delirious. But I'll generously let it pass just this once. And I'll call you 'honey' any time I feel like it...honey!" she taunted. I made a weak growl in my parched throat to communicate my displeasure.

"But really...I thought we were going to lose you, Cevn," she added. "Mara tried to poison you, but Skuld and I were able..."

"We got it out of you just in the nick of time," Skuld finished.

"Hey, you don't have to interrupt me, you dumb brat!" Urd admonished.

"I was just as worried about him as you were, Big Sister! Don't you act stupid! It took both of us to save him from the Reaper!"

I reacted pretty strongly to Skuld's innocent disclosure. The word "Reaper" brought up images with a distinctly Hieronymus Bosch bent; definitely not the comedic Death-figure from "Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure." If she was referring to what I imagined she was saying...then these two had literally saved my life! I was so consternated in my head that I tuned out the ensuing argument between Skuld and Urd. Skuld was holding my hand still, and I could feel her body vibrate with each retort she aimed at Urd.

"You did not teach me everything I know, you idiot!" I heard Skuld yell at Urd.

"Of course I didn't. I only taught you the good stuff. All your screw ups are your own fault!" Urd shot back.

and on and on and on...

I felt moody enough, but with the bickerflap, my mood bordered on irritability. These two had saved my life while cooperating, but now they were tearing each other up with argumentative criticism. Ad hominum...err, ad deaae attacks and such...

"Enough already!" I shouted. "You two are sitting pretty on my raw nerves. I feel like crap...and you have to pitch your sibling rivalry right at my bedside. How could you fight so much! Together, you both saved my life, and now you're yelling at each other. Why can't you just give each other a break once in a while! While you're at it, why don't you both give me a break and leave.

"Get out, both of you!"

I felt Skuld suddenly release my hand, followed by a door opening and closing. There was heated arguing in the hallway as Skuld and Urd fought it out over who had upset me the most. I noticed that with the loss of my eyesight, my hearing was developing greater sensitivity. Of course! My senses were homeostatically compensating for my lost visual capacities.

From what I could hear, it seemed that Skuld was besting Urd. At least until Belldandy interrupted them.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

In the dining room, Belldandy was liberally chewing out her two sisters. She had taken off her kitchen smock, so that she could gesture animatedly with her arms and hands.

"You two have to learn to control your arguing! You both feel bad because Cevn asked you to leave his room..." she started.

"He's an ingrate! After all we did for him last weekend!" Urd smartly interrupted.

"...that doesn't give you an excuse to argue and upset him. Think of it from his vantagepoint. He's really, really sick, and the two of you start yelling at each other...moments after he wakes up! Right after telling him that you cooperated to save his life. What would either of you do?" she concluded rhetorically.

This sobered both of the embattled Goddesses. Skuld looked thoughtful, while Urd seemed apologetic.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Bell. That was foolish of us. For my part, I'm a little bit sorry. But I can't help it...I feel so weird around him sometimes," Urd admitted.

"Yes, I'm sorry too, Big Sister! He's really really sick, and we shouldn't have argued so much. I feel like I owe him so much, and I want very badly to help him get his eyesight back."

"I've been thinking about that," Belldandy mentioned. It had struck her two days ago while she was talking to Keiichi about the upcoming weekend....

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Keiichi-san, can we talk?"

Keiichi put down the voiceboard and offered his full attention at his sweetheart. His Sony voiceboard was actually a keyboard with a built-in microphone, which made inputting Kanji much easier. A few years ago, the only way to input Kanji and other components of Japanese was to type the phonetic equivalents. It was such a hassled! To type the character for Kanji, one had to type k-a-n-ji in hiragana or katakana; then the program would convert it. Now, all he had to do was say "kanji" in the context of a sentence, and the appropriate character would appear on the screen. After many years of research, the sound/voice recognition buffers of the standard laptop had become so accurate, there was hardly ever a mistake.

He looked at Belldandy closely, noticing that she seemed very intent to tell him something.

"For you, my ear is always bent, Belle-ami!" he said brightly, using the new French term he had learned from Cevn last week; it meant "attractive lady friend"

Belldandy thought it was so cute that the near-homonym for her name had such a delightful meaning in another Earthrealm language. She set down her charcoal sketch of Keiichi and wiped her blackened hands on the damp cloth, then folded them in her lap. The weather was hot...a preview of the humid summer coming in a few months. Knitting sweaters was kind of impractical, not to mention laborious in this weather. So she was trying her hand at charcoal sketches of the members of the house. Of course, her sketch of Keiichi was the hardest...

Keiichi looked over her shoulder at her drawing of him and smiled approvingly...it was more of a likeness than a caricature.

"That's really good, Bell-chan!" he praised.

"Keiichi, we really need to get away for a weekend! Spring break just wasn't enough for me," she said with a hint of seriousity.

"Soon!" she added.

Keiichi looked at her with a slight start. It was a rarity when Belldandy made a demand on him. She had made a lot of demands when she first came into his life...out of the sheer necessity of learning about her surroundings. He remembered the trip on the ferryboat: the night he slipped on the soda can and fell over the guardrail and Bell-chan used magic to stop his fall into the sea. That was their first real kiss. He had been fighting with himself to try and put his arm around her earlier in the day...and then ended up sleeping on her lap and finally kissing her while they floated in mid-air.

He looked in her sweet off-blue eyes and swore that she fluttered them at him ever so slightly.

"It has been a long time since the two of us have had any time for ourselves, he reflected. The visit to Atami was great, but it was so short of a time together.

She was giving him that look again, the one that he could never, ever refuse. Her eyes poured tenderness right on down to the bottom of his soul. Once more Keiichi thanked Kami-sama for sending one of His own daughters to become such an integral part of his life these past three years.

"Uh, Bell-chan...I.I'm so sorry that I haven't...been around...for you lately," he apologized, awkward because the words themselves weren't enough to express his regret.

Belldandy dismissed his amends with one of her own.

"I know that you were very busy with the Solar Car Competition, and then your finals. I wanted you to rest during Spring Break, because you were so tired. I hope that this isn't too soon afterwards for me to want a weekend away from the house, with just the two of us..."

"Just..the..two..of..us!" Keiichi stuttered, beaming at her. After all, the prospect of a weekend alone with Belldandy was something he often daydreamed about with a mixture of anticipation and fear. But seldom came the opportunity for the two of them to make good a romantic escape. The so-called Ultimate Force had bound them together, but seemed to keep them together when they couldn't just be together, alone.

After fate had collected them and deposited them into their new temple home, people just sort of came to live with them. Encroached on their privacy. First, there was Megumi, who needed a place to stay during college and had a packet of money from their uncle. Then Urd arrived and ployed her exuberant "let's get you two together" routine. Finally, there was Skuld and her jealous animosity. But even that wasn't the end; Megumi's housing situation didn't work out last year and she had to move back to the temple...and now Cevn had joined their legion just a month ago.

Keiichi didn't know which of the sisters was the worse at meddling in his and Belldandy's love life.

His younger sister, Megumi... She wasn't a pain in the ass like the other two, but she did demand a lot of his time. Not to mention her presence creating certain reservations in his mind. How could he make love with his girlfriend (if that time ever came) with his little sister in the house?

"Damn it, she's even grown taller than me!" Keiichi thought in exasperation at Megumi's growth spurt this past year. Then he meditated upon the sum of distractions that prevented him from spending time alone with his love.

"Let's see...Demons, bugs, the Almighty and Ultimate Destruction Programs. Just a few minor things like that," he further reflected.

But when Belldandy would feel contrition about all the hassles that came along with their relationship, he would only offer a gentle protest. Bell-chan seemed downright self-accusatory at times; thinking that she was the source of so much turmoil in his life. Actually, none of it was her fault. He had never doubted that, despite the trials and tribulations, the love they shared was worth any risk.

"It's just too genuine," he reflected gratefully.

He thought back to the race, and remembered the dramatic mountain scenery as he raced through Nikko National Park as part of the touring stage. Seeing the incredible beauty of Nikko inspired him. Keiichi felt a chill seeping up and down his back: he had never visited there with Belldandy. And Nikko was an important place to visit!

"Hey, wouldn't it be great for us to take a long camping trip in Nikko, or maybe even Hokkaido!" he cheerfully suggested. He remembered that the Toshogu Festival would be held on the next weekend. But was it too late to go? That would be an incredible exhibition of Japanese culture for Belldandy to witness.

"Oh Keiichi! That sounds...absolutely wonderful!" Belldandy assented, then reached over and hugged him. He pulled her closer to him and they cuddled for a few minutes. He thought about Belldandy and he, the snow-capped mountains, the wind weaving playfully through her long brown tresses...

"Sumotori!" Keiichi shouted suddenly as he playfully wrestled Belldandy onto her back. She squealed with delight and reached up and tried to push him off of her. She looked so beautiful, with her hair fanned out all over the floor, framing her lovely cheeks blushed from the exertion of wrestling with him. And her soft smile. She looked softly up at him, seemingly waiting for something, but Keiichi suddenly got a case of the bashfuls and tickled her instead.

"Kei..i....chi!" she giggled, and started tickling him back, reaching up to poke him in the ribs. Belldandy knew that this was one of Keiichi's most sensitive 'tickly centers' and prodded him until he feel back on the floor next to her, laughing uncontrollably.

"I give up, I give up!" he begged. They both lay side by side, staring at the ceiling. Belldandy scooted a little closer to him and rested her head on his arm.

"Keiichi, I was talking to Skuld yesterday..."

Keiichi's face fell flat. Why did Bell have to bring her up at a time like this? The excitement drained from his face like water from ramen noodles. The subject of Skuld could dampen a romantic mood quicker than a shriek freshly released from a hyena's breast.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked innocently, noticing his shift towards a somber mood. She started playing footsies with him while continuing.

"Anyway, I was talking to Skuld, and she was telling me about what happened to her while she was in Mara's lair. She mentioned that she and Cevn had felt a little of each other's minds," she said, trying to ignore his long face.

"Huh?" Keiichi asked, wondering where this was all going. Belldandy rolled on her side to face him. She had a huge smile on her face.

"Skuld told me that she had been wrong about a lot of things. You and me, for example!"

"Yeah, it's about time she realized that!" Keiichi said in a flat voice as he sat up in frustration.

"But Keiichi-san, Skuld just wants what's best for me!" Belldandy replied as she sat up next to him.

"I know, Bell-chan!" he agreed as he looked out the window. "But...how she goes about it is so totally messed up!"

"Something wonderful has happened, Keiichi! While Skuld shared thoughts with Cevn-san, she was able to see our love for each other through his eyes...er, through his perspective. Because of this, she's no longer so enwrapped in her worries that you aren't good enough for me, or that you'll hurt me in some way. Instead, she said that she knows how much I love you, and how you are a very wonderful man! She said that she can't harden her heart against you anymore, and that she'll learn to love you!" Keiichi thought that his divine girlfriend was joking with him to get him back for tickling her so aggressively.

"That means that she won't be sending Banpei to attack you every time we kiss or we're alone! Think of it, Keiichi-san! We're free from Skuld's fears about you hurting me, or taking me away from her!" Belldandy stated with a rich, joyful voice. Keiichi looked closer at her face...

"She really means it!" he realized with a start. Keiichi was dumbfounded. He felt his heart pounding rapidly in his chest like a kodo drum.

"Say...that...again...Bell-chan!" She repeated what Skuld had told her. Keiichi raised his eyes heavenward and shook his head in astonishment.

"This is...unbelievable!" was all that words that could swarm through the maze of shock he was experiencing. He looked back at Belldandy, and saw tears of gratitude in her eyes. He knew how hard it was for her to have to balance her younger sister's feelings against her affection for him. He felt like crying too; empathic tears softened his eyes. He felt so happy for his beloved girlfriend!

"Keiichi, I had wished...ever since I met you...that we all would be able to get along. Just get along..." she admitted between sobs.

"I would never leave you, my love. But I wanted Skuld to share in our love too!" Keiichi felt his heartstrings being plucked. He rolled over on his side to face Belldandy and pulled her close to his chest, feeling her sobs of joy shudder within his arms.

It felt like a stormy darkness had just passed. Keiichi grinned as he realized that he now was free of Skuld's constant efforts to run interference! And somehow, this all had to do with Cevn-san.

"How could you know how much we are in love in just a few weeks, my friend?" he reflected.

Belldandy felt a thrill shiver up and down her body and Keiichi pulled her face gently to his and kissed her longingly on the lips. Their tongues met and danced, as they both looked deeply into each other's eyes. She ran her fingers through his black spiky hair, combing it behind his ears. She could feel his warmth against her chest, and her neck lingered in the soft sensation of his touch.

After what seemed like too short of a time, Keiichi pulled away and gently kissed her on the forehead.

"I love you so much, Bell-chan!" he whispered into her ear.

They talked excitedly about going up to Nikko in the next week. Keiichi would need to phone in for camping permits and tickets to the festival. Hokkaido would have to wait. Belldandy drew up a list of camping supplies with one of her charcoal pencils.

Keiichi looked it over and laughed.

"You want to take the whole house with you, Bell-chan! Just like a human woman," he teased her. "The object of camping is to live simply, out in the woods, just you and me and nature!"

Belldandy hit him with the sitting cushion that was in front of the computer. This started off another round of wrestling, only this time Belldandy pinned Keiichi down. She simply increased her strength and weight. Sitting astride him, she tickled him until he apologized.

"How dare you compare me to a mortal woman!" she said with mock indignity.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry...I goofed! That was a very bad thing to say."

"That's better!"

Keiichi suddenly started thinking about Cevn. He and Belldandy seemed ready to embark on a new phase of their relationship, and his new friend was confined to his room with severe injuries. Even worse, Mara had blinded him. It didn't make sense.

"Bell, I don't understand why the Almighty would cause Urd to bring Cevn here, then give him that mysterious book, and then let him get blinded by Mara. Why?" Belldandy sat up next to him, and looked thoughtfully into thin air for a moment.

"You're right, my love. How could that be? Even for the Lord, this would be pretty senseless.  Not that the Almighty is senseless, of course...but His actions are often far beyond our ability to comprehend.  But not this removed from anything resembling a purposeful intention," she commented.

"Yeah, I mean, how could He give Cevn that book if he cannot read it!" Keiichi added. Keiichi felt an intuitive sense about Cevn; he would somehow get his eyesight back.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"You know, you guys, I don't think Cevn was meant to be blind for the rest of his life. It would be very strange that he would be left unable to read that unusual book in his possession!" Belldandy remarked.

"Wow!" Skuld exclaimed. "That really makes a lot of sense!"

Urd looked at Belldandy with a surprised face.

"What?" She thought of the event that had brought Cevn to this state and her own lack of confidence in her ability to remedy the situation. Skuld had the spunky confidence of a poker player with a royal straight flush in her hand...but Urd had her doubts.

"But, he's mortal! I don't know if anyone has done what we're going to try to do this weekend. It's not just a matter of physically restoring his eyesight; there is the part of undoing all the neurological damage. Not to mention the spiritual side of things!" Urd said, keeping a solvent perspective on this.

"It has to work! It has to work! How else are we supposed to figure out what to do with that weird book he has, before Mara summons Isilblius!" Skuld interjected.

"Maybe we're supposed to simply read it to him, and he'll be able to figure it out. He doesn't need to see to be able to do that." Belldandy and Skuld both shook their heads in the negative at Urd's suggestion.

"Maybe part of it's in Braille!" Urd stated with a "rescue me, I'm stuck" look on her face.

"Fraid not, Big Sister! Face it, we're going to have to try this weekend!" Skuld said upperhandedly.

"Really? Keiichi and I are going on a camping trip this weekend! I'm really looking forward to it!" Belldandy said excitedly.

Urd rolled her eyes.

"Bell, the weekend began tomorrow," she said evenly.

"Oh! I didn't know if he meant this weekend, or next weekend!" Belldandy replied, her eyes clouded with confusion.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Keiichi is really looking forward to camping with you tomorrow, Belldandy! What did you guys do last night? He is absolutely beside himself with anticipation. Did you two finally..." Megumi asked, freshly home from school. Belldandy turned pink with embarrassment. 

"NO! We didn't do anything different then we do all the time..."

"Which is nothing!" Urd snorted with disgust. "What is keeping him from plucking the most delicate flower in the garden of love's delights? Well, maybe being out in nature will make him see you in a more...natural light!" she added with a mischievous smile.

"Urd!" Belldandy shouted, turning redder and redder. Her cheeks were blushed really deeply! Megumi was amused at his older brother's effect on the divine Bell-chan.

"You're still a pervert, Urd! Don't be giving my sister such a scare!" Skuld remarked icily. "Look what you've done to her now!"

Urd chucked at her sisters.

"She did it to herself, shojo girl. When you get a little older and wiser, you'll realize that Belldandy is embarrassed because we're talking about something that she really wants...but she's too prim to admit it!"

"I am not a little girl!" Skuld yelled. "I'm an older girl!"

"I'm not a prim!" Belldandy shouted.

"You're both still girls! Belldandy...well, it's obvious why you still aren't a real woman or a full Goddess! And Skuld...where's your little bra?" Urd declared, making a move towards Skuld's blouse with a practiced prying finger. Skuld panicked and tightly folded her arms over her chest, which brought laughter to all present except a now-seething Skuld and a red-faced Belldandy.

"You guys wait. You just wait! Someday, I'm going be older, and you'll all be jealous cuz' I'll be prettier than both of you!" Skuld said desperately.

"Yeah, yeah! You know it takes ten thousand years for one of us to age like a mortal would in a single year," Urd added. "Looks like you'll be as flat as the ocean for a while!"

The downcast look on Skuld's face made her immediately regret her remark. Skuld looked like she was poised to burst into tears.

"Dammit, I've done it again! When am I going to learn to keep my mouth shut!" Urd confronted herself.

"Skuld, I'm sorry!" she quickly apologized.

"Well, at least I can have a boyfriend!" Skuld shot back with genuine ire. Urd felt the sabre-like sting of the remark. She looked at the floor sadly for a moment, then got up and walked to her room.

Megumi looked surprised at Urd's sudden departure, while Belldandy had a sad look in her eyes. Skuld realized that she had gone for the throat with that last comment, and Cevn's admonition about her and Urd's fights came back to her.

"Urd! I'm sooo sorry!" she yelled as she jumped up and ran after her sister.

Urd was in the hallway, leaning back against the wall, tears streaming down her eyes. Skuld stood next to her. For some reason, she noticed that the top of her head only came to be level with Urd's shoulders.

"We've gotta stop fighting like this," she said to her sister. Of all the things that Skuld could have said, she had picked the most delicate, painful thing. But then, so did Urd with her remark about Skuld's nonexistent breasts.

Urd looked at her youngest sister with a misty expression.

"Yes. We each have...snff...our limitations. It's no use..." she mumbled, then started crying again.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Megumi heard the two sisters in the hallway and started to get up to see if she could help. She was afraid that they would just resume their sibling arguing. Belldandy reached out and put a restraining hand on her shoulder, and shook her head "no".

"They've got to work this out for themselves, Megumi."

"I know. But I hate seeing them fight like this! I know how much they love each other, and yet they argue so much!"

"That is because they are the Norns of the Past and the Future. The Past is always afraid of the future, and the Future is always resentful at the past," Belldandy explained. As the Goddess of the Present, she seldom drew anger from either.

But since Mara had been appearing in their lives again, the whole household seemed to be on edge. She knew that Mara's presence accounted for the raw nerves that led to the increased conflict between the two sisters.

"They'll be okay, Megumi. They always seem to reach an accord...in their own Time."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Urd felt so defeated. Defeated by fate. Defeated in her heart. Her defeat was so obvious that her little sister could see it plainly...and use it against her in a careless moment of heated argument. The feeling of defeat enveloped her, crushing her inside of its smothering folds.

There was nothing she could do.

But there was something she could do to help Cevn-san. And there was something she could do to prevent herself from hurting Skuld so much. She looked at the young Goddess standing next to her, a smaller version of herself. With all the fragility of youth...

"You're right Skuld. We have to stick together even more, now that Mara is up to her old tricks. You have no idea how much your disappearance worried Belldandy and I. I'm really sorry for saying that hateful thing to you. I promise to never say it again. And if I do say it, please remind me of my promise."

Skuld giggled at Urd's solemnity.

"But doesn't that mean that you'll say it again, if you're asking me to remind you?" she reasoned. Urd snickered at little at that. 

"Yep. Someone's gotta keep you on your toes, or else you'll grow up to be a big brat!" she answered.

They both laughed with relief, thankful that they were no longer taking themselves so seriously.